Forming a creeping carpet of attractively divided foliage, this wonderful new geranium will help keep weeds at bay. It is however for its ability to produce an abundance of dark-veined, pale pink flowers throughout summer that it is best-loved. Perfect for adding colour at the front of the border, for softening the edges of a path, or for spilling over the sides of a pot.

Garden care: Carefully weed by hand as hoeing can break rhizomes, which are very close to the surface. Lift and divide large colonies in spring.

golden male fern (syn. The King)

Campanula portenschlagiana

dalmatian bellflower

Early flowering roses tend to come in shades of white, pink or purple-pink and most forms of the biennial foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, have toning flowers in similar colours. These appear in rose time, but carry on after the first rose flush has finished

One of the major players in our gardens is the hardy geranium with its gaping, saucer-shaped flowers heavily veined in order to guide the thirsty bee to the vital nectar and pollen. There are varieties galore and it’s quite possible to have hardy geraniu

When choosing plants for your garden you want some ‘core plants’, ones that will that offer weeks of flower, not just a few fleeting days. These stalwarts help balance out those ephemeral poppies, the plants with the tissue-paper petals that drop within a

We all want a lovely garden but sometimes we are too busy with work and family, or we simply don’t have the inclination to garden incessantly, so the trick is to choose low maintenance plants such as easy shrubs and then to underplant them with ground cov